A New York state Senator has introduced a bill to provide lifetime health insurance to kidney donors.
State Senator James Skoufis says the bill would provide lifetime healthcare through the state's insurance exchange to anyone in New York who donates a kidney. The Hudson Valley Democrat says there are more than 8,000 people in New York waiting for a kidney transplant and, through the first ten months of 2019, just 347 people have served as living kidney donors. The program would be funded through a newly-authorized Kidney Donor Insurance Fund that would be established in the budget process. Skoufis says the costs associated with the new fund would be far lower than the expenses associated with dialysis services required for New Yorkers who are languishing on the transplant waitlist. If signed into law, the bill would take effect immediately.
